Stem cells for therapy of neurodegeneration

Regenerative medicine is an advanced field of biomedicine aimed at repairing damaged tissues and organs. Promising areas of research include the creation of artificial organs, the development of biomaterials and personalized medicine in the treatment of cardiovascular, neurodegenerative, oncological diseases, diabetes mellitus, and many others. Researchers face challenges related to immunological reactions, ethical issues, and technology scaling. Stem cells (SC) and their products, including small extracellular vesicles (sEV), are promising tools for the therapy of diseases that are currently difficult to treat with the existing approaches. Cell therapy based on mesenchymal, embryonic, neural, and induced pluripotent SC is a promising method for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, the prevalence of which is increasing due to an increase in life expectancy of the population. The interest in sEV is explained by the fact that the effect of sEV transplantation is comparable to that of maternal cells, and their small size gives them obvious advantages in distribution throughout the recipient’s body. This review provides experimental and clinical data on the use of SC and their products for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and their prevention.